Thursday, July 29, 2010

This week I have been struck with the realization that I only have about one month left of having Caedmon all to myself. When we welcome Wondimu into our home, our whole world is going to change (for the better). Caedmon will suddenly become a big brother and I will be a mother of two. In light of that, I am making it my effort to enjoy every moment I have with just him.

This week Caedmon and I have been to the playground, visited the zoo, and been swimming twice. We have eaten a picnic lunch outside the past three days. We are enjoying summer, enjoying each other, and enjoying life. What a sweet time!

One of the best parts of my day is going into Caedmon's room in the morning, crawling in bed with him, and snuggling as he slowly wakes up. I recently made the mistake of letting Andy do this one morning. Now that he realizes how precious those moments are, we have to arm wrestle to see who gets to do it!

I don't know what season of life you are in right now...whether good or bad...but one thing is for certain, the season won't last long. When I look back on Caedmon's childhood, I want to know that I treasured my time with him. Sure, some bath times get rushed and tantrums are less-than-treasured. But on the whole, I want to know that I enjoyed this season.

How about you? Are you embracing the season in which God has you right now?

Monday, July 26, 2010

Today has been a fun day of preparation for bringing Wondimu home. Caedmon and I pulled out the boxes and tupperwares containing all of his old clothes. We sorted through what will fit Wondimu and began washing them to get them ready. It is all becoming VERY REAL that we are about to welcome another child into our home! I am SO EXCITED!

A couple days ago we got the following email from Yonas, one of our adoption agency's in-country guides. He was the sweetest guy and it comforts my heart to know that our son is interacting with such wonderful, loving people.

Dear Andy and Stacie Wood,

This is Yonas from America World.I hope you remember me.How are you doing?I am good.Well your wonderful kid Wendmu is doing great.As I promised to you I usually visiting him.He is a lovely boy.He missed you alot.I am taking care of him while I am in the transitional house.So you dont have to worry about him.I will give him a big kiss for you tomorrow. I hope I will see you soon.Take care.

yonas

Thank you, Yonas! Of course we remember you and we CAN HARDLY WAIT to see you again soon!

Thursday, July 22, 2010

On our way to Ethiopia, Andy & I took Caedmon to Salt Lake City where he spent 10 days enjoying a family vacation with Andy's family. While Andy & I were missing Caedmon like crazy, I'm pretty sure he was having the time of his life. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves...

Thank you so much, Meaghan, for having him! Taking on an additional 3 year old for 10 days is no small feat and we are ever so grateful!

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

This morning, Caedmon came in our room very early and I could see through blurry eyes that he had cut his hair. Half of his head was down to the scalp! I immediately burst into tears and said, "Caedmon, what did you do? Your hair looks horrible!!"

Andy said, "Don't say that. That's mean."

I said, "Caedmon, where did you find scissors?"

He replied, "I used the kitchen scissors."

Oh. My. Gosh. We walked out into the living room and hair was EVERYWHERE. Like it multiplied as it fell off his head. In the kitchen, all the cabinets were open and the dishwasher was open (also full of hair).

I said to Andy, "Don't start cleaning up yet. I need to go get my camera."

But as I turned to get my camera, I woke up! HA! It was a dream nightmare. I wonder how many people won't make it to the end of this post and will think it actually happened.

However, in hopes of preventing further bad dreams, I did take Caedmon to get his haircut today at Super Cuts which is always a terribly disappointing experience for me. Unlike last time, I was able to hold it together this time and did not leave crying. But I was disappointed, nonetheless.

I don't know if I just do a horrible job explaining the look I'm hoping for or if they just do a horrible job implementing my vision. But there is a major disparity between the haircut I have in my mind and the haircut Caedmon ends up with. Lucky for me, Caedmon couldn't care less what his hair looks like and it just thoroughly satisfied with the lollipops he gets for "sitting still" in the chair. He doesn't even notice that one side of his bangs comes down a good half inch lower than the other side...

He's still adorable...but not quite the look I was going for!

Does anyone out there have a good recommendation of where to take kids to get their hair cut?

Monday, July 19, 2010

One thing Andy & I are committed to do for our children is to pray over them every night...not just the "God bless Caedmon and help him sleep well" kind of prayers. But really praying for his heart, who God is shaping him to be, and character qualities that we want him to develop. Some nights Caedmon patiently endures the prayer while other nights it's all we can do to get him to be quiet and not squirm out of our arms. I honestly never really thought he was listening.

But last night, he proved me wrong. After I finished praying for him last night, Caedmon said in a tearful voice, "But, Mom, you didn't pray that I'd become a warrior!"

The name, Caedmon, means 'a wise warrior'. We chose that name for him because we desire to see Caedmon grow up to be a warrior in the Kingdom of God, and this is a prayer that we pray over him often. I realize the 3-year-old-Caedmon likely has very little understanding of the symbolic nature of this prayer, but I also realize that he hears it, nonetheless. He hears all of the things we pray over him...that God would draw his heart to Him, that God would give him a heart to know Him and love Him, that Caedmon would be a man of prayer and integrity, that he would desire to honor God with his whole life.

Those prayers are shaping his thoughts and his life...even if he's standing on top of his head and talking to his stuffed animal while he "listens".

Thursday, July 15, 2010

We made it home last night and, ahhhh, it is good to be home! All of our travels went so smoothly and it was a very joyful reunion with Caedmon. We were away from Caedmon for 10 days, which is three times longer than we've ever been away from him before. We were all having a hard time with it by the end.

Several people have asked me how it was to say goodbye to Wondimu and how I'm doing now. All I can say is that I can feel people's prayers. I know that many people have prayed specifically for us regarding this separation, and it is quite evident. I find myself constantly thinking of him, calculating what time it is in Ethiopia, and thinking of what he's probably doing that minute. Now that I know what he sounds like, and feels like, and smells like, my thoughts of him are much more vivid.

(getting tickled by his daddy)

We are praying for a quick Embassy appointment so that we can be reunited quickly and that we can get our family in one location. In the meantime, I will busy myself with making all the final preparations to welcome him home!

Monday, July 12, 2010

First, we wanted to let you know that South Bay had an INCREDIBLE day yesterday at church! We had a record high attendance of 410 people (that number does not include the mission teams who are in town to serve with us)!! God is doing unbelievable things in our midst and Andy & I are rejoicing on the other side of the globe. We are so thankful to have an amazing staff team who is able to lead in our absence and are blessed with wonderful, servant-hearted volunteers and mission teams who desire to make a difference. It is SUCH A JOY to be apart of the work of God!

Over the past few weeks we have had misison teams from Pleasant Valley Church, Northside Baptist, and Lake Pointe Church. Their efforts have literally propelled our church forward. They have passed out countless door hangers, done servant evangelism, helped with a huge, community-wide July 4th festival, hosted a festival/cookout after church yesterday, and so much more.

This week we are heading into our first annual week of Kid's Games. Kid's Games is a similar concept to VBS, including Bible study, but it is much more oriented around sports and games. It looks like we will have over ONE HUNDRED children participating this week, most of whom do not attend South Bay Church. In fact, we have had several families indicate other religions including Buddhist, Wiccan, and atheist. What an awesome opportunity for the Church to bless these children/families, to love them, and to have FUN with them! We get to be the hands of Christ to these families this week...pray that we represent Him well. We are praying that many families would get connected to South Bay through this event and that this would lead them one step closer to a relationship with Christ!

OK, on to the Ethiopia update...

This week has served to confirm in our hearts what the Father knew all along: Wondimu is absolutely the PERFECT FIT in the Wood family! Andy and I were talking yesterday about his age (20 months) and how that will be a great span between him and Caedmon...almost exactly 2 years. His personality is sweet and playful. He is all smiles and games. It is really staggering to see how much attachment and bonding has already taken place in the 6 days we've had with him. He now cries every time we leave or someone takes him from us. This is unusual (and a great sign) for a child who has had many caregivers. This week with him has been priceless and we have made so many wonderful memories with him.

Today is our last day in Ethiopia and there are several things we would love your prayers for.

1- We have to say goodbye to Wondimu today. Some of you may not have realized this, but we do not get to take Wondimu home with us at this point. Ethiopia has a two-trip adoption policy. The first trip is to meet the child and go to court. The second trip is for your US Embassy appointment and to bring him home. That Embassy appointment could be scheduled anywhere 4-8 weeks from now. That is when we will come back to get him.

As you can imagine, it is VERY difficult to leave a child who is legally ours and with whom our hearts have bonded in a third-world country orphanage. We are comforted in knowing that Wondimu is well-loved there by the nannies and well-fed (actually overfed). But, Wondimu has major chest congestion right now and at least 11 of the infants there have chicken pox. We are specifically praying that God will protect Wondimu's health during this time apart and that He would protect all of our hearts as we long to be together.

2- Our flight leaves at 11:40 PM Ethiopian time which is 1:40 PM California time. We will travel approximately 32 hours to Salt Lake City where we will be reunited with our precious son, Caedmon. We are missing him SO BADLY and that is our only relief in thinking of leaving Ethiopia today. We will spend the night in Salt Lake with Andy's sister and then will leave the next morning for California. If everything goes as planned, we should be home Wednesday afternoon. Please pray for smooth travels and a very sweet reunion with Caedmon.

I know that the day we are able to bring Wondimu home and have all four of us together will be one of the happiest days of my life. Until then, whether we are in Ethiopia with Wondimu or in California with Caedmon, a piece of us is missing.

THANK YOU for joining us on this journey through your prayers. Your emails have encouraged our hearts and brought me to tears. There is nothing like knowing that literally hundreds of people are praying for us. We are deeply appreciative of you!

Saturday, July 10, 2010

Wonderful, exciting news for the Wood family today: we are officially the proud parents of a precious Ethiopian little boy named Wondimu! We met with the judge this morning and she let us know on the spot that we were approved. I was so surprised that I burst into tears and just said a choked up, "thank you so much".

Wondimu's birth mother was there at court and we were able to spend time with her afterwards. I cannot even tell you how wonderful that time was. It was emotionally draining and there were many tears cried by both parties. But it was exactly what I hoped it would be. She didn't answer our questions as thoroughly as I had hoped. But we did get some valuable information that I know our son will treasure in years to come. Our translator explained to us that these birth families are often such simple people that questions that make perfect sense to us do not make sense to them.

After our interview, Wondimu's birth mother, Andy and I all went together to spend time with Wondimu. That time was so healing for her. She held him and fed him and we all played with him. We were all laughing together and adoring our son. A son who belonged to each of us. She was able to observe our interactions with Wondimu and see how much we love him. I honestly think she felt relieved to know that her son would be well cared for. We gave her pictures of us and our home which she kissed over and over.
I won't share all of the questions we asked because the interview lasted about 30 minutes. But there were three questions that stood out and I think it may touch your heart:
1- Describe the circumstances surrounding your decision to relinquish Wondimu.
She said that she is so poor that there were days that she could not even feed him. She cannot even provide for herself, much less her child.

2- Do you have any hobbies or things you like to do (I.e. Sing, do art, etc...)
She said "I like to pray."

3- Is there anything that you want us to instill in Wondimu or teach him? She said, "I hope he learns to pray and that he worships God."

I think it is amazing that her greatest desire for Wondimu is our greatest desire as well.

We are so thankful for all of you who said prayers on our behalf. We hope that you will rejoice with us as there is one less orphan in the world tonight!

Friday, July 9, 2010

I don't have much time to write tonight because Andy is ready to go to sleep...but I had to share this one most precious story of the day. Wondimu, for the first time today, began to show preference toward us as opposed to other people. He seems particularly attached to Andy, which is thrilling to me because I thought he may have attachment issues to Andy since he was abandoned by his father. Today, someone else picked up Wondimu and he immediately began reaching for Andy. That may not seem like a big deal, but to us it was huge.

Then, the best part...it was time for us to say goodbye so I was taking Wondimu back to the nursery with the other children. Andy stood right outside the nursery and gave Wondimu a great big hug. When I took Wondimu from Andy and he realized that Andy wasn't coming, he threw his head back and began to cry. (Wondimu is a very happy child and I've only seen him cry two other times in the 5 days we've spent with him.) I tried to distract Wondimu with toys, but he was not having it. He continued to wail until Andy walked back in the room and picked him up! He immediately dried it up and got a huge smile on his face. Ahhh, nothing could have been sweeter.

We made it to Ethiopia after 31 hours and 36 minutes. It was a long trip, but it went so smoothly. All of our luggage made it and we are settled in at the Yebsabi Guest House. The accommodations here are more than adequate. They serve a delicious breakfast each morning that I have enjoyed way too much of! We do have internet here, but it is extremely slow and I’m not able to get on my blog at all. I can email, so I emailed my mom and she is posting this for me.

Yesterday we met our son for the first time. It was a priceless, one-time-only event. We were able to spend about 3 hours with him. After spending time with him, we think he is closer to 18 months than 2 years old (which is how old his paperwork estimates him to be). He was very quiet and didn’t move around much during our first afternoon with him. He didn’t cry at all, but we could tell he didn’t feel all that comfortable. We played with him and fed him his bottle (they still have him on formula at 18+ months!) and supper. He took about an hour to drink his bottle, though I think it was more of a security thing for him. He just laid in our arms and stared up at us as we talked to him.

Today he was a different little boy. He was playful and laughing…such a sweet sound. He moved around a lot more but was still quite content just to sit in our arms. He finished his bottle today in about 15-20 minutes and was ready to play some more. I can’t wait to post all of our pictures of him! He is gorgeous.

Tomorrow morning is our court appointment (Wednesday night for most of you). This is a really big deal as we have to pass court before we can proceed with the adoption. The main reason that people do not pass court on the first time is that there is a problem with the paperwork. We would truly appreciate your prayer regarding this today!

We will also likely meet our son’s birth mother tomorrow. There is so much we want to ask her and I’m sure the meeting will be very emotional for all of us. Please pray for this meeting that we hope to have with her.

I’m sorry that I’m not able to update my blog like I had hoped. I wasn’t sure what our internet options would look like here and it turns out it’s slower and more spotty than I had hoped. I am journaling everything and we have a gazillion pictures, so I will update you on all the details when we get home!

Wednesday, July 7, 2010

We made it to Ethiopia after 31 hours and 36 minutes. It was a long trip, but it went so smoothly. All of our luggage made it and we are settled in at the Yebsabi Guest House. The accommodations here are more than adequate. They serve a delicious breakfast each morning that I have enjoyed way too much of! We do have internet here, but it is extremely slow and I’m not able to get on my blog at all. I can email, so I emailed my mom and she is posting this for me.

Yesterday we met our son for the first time. It was a priceless, one-time-only event. We were able to spend about 3 hours with him. After spending time with him, we think he is closer to 18 months than 2 years old (which is how old his paperwork estimates him to be). He was very quiet and didn’t move around much during our first afternoon with him. He didn’t cry at all, but we could tell he didn’t feel all that comfortable. We played with him and fed him his bottle (they still have him on formula at 18+ months!) and supper. He took about an hour to drink his bottle, though I think it was more of a security thing for him. He just laid in our arms and stared up at us as we talked to him.

Today he was a different little boy. He was playful and laughing…such a sweet sound. He moved around a lot more but was still quite content just to sit in our arms. He finished his bottle today in about 15-20 minutes and was ready to play some more. I can’t wait to post all of our pictures of him! He is gorgeous.

Tomorrow morning is our court appointment (Wednesday night for most of you). This is a really big deal as we have to pass court before we can proceed with the adoption. The main reason that people do not pass court on the first time is that there is a problem with the paperwork. We would truly appreciate your prayer regarding this today!

We will also likely meet our son’s birth mother tomorrow. There is so much we want to ask her and I’m sure the meeting will be very emotional for all of us. Please pray for this meeting that we hope to have with her.

I’m sorry that I’m not able to update my blog like I had hoped. I wasn’t sure what our internet options would look like here and it turns out it’s slower and more spotty than I had hoped. I am journaling everything and we have a gazillion pictures, so I will update you on all the details when we get home!

Sunday, July 4, 2010

Happy 4th of July! I was remembering that this will be my fourth Independence Day to be celebrated abroad. One in China, one in Venezuela, one in Thailand, and this one. (Well, I'm not sure this one technically counts b/c we're in the Chicago airport right now but will be flying over international waters soon.) I have funny stories to accompany each of those 4th of July's. American holidays + a foreign country = funny memories.

Quick update...we did eventually find our baggage last night. I posted yesterday's blog while waiting on our rental car and there was no baggage to be found. The baggage claim area was pretty much vacant. But when I went to the baggage counter to ask an agent, they found all 4 checked bags plus our carseat in storage. I guess since we were originally supposed to be on an earlier flight, our bags made it to Salt Lake before we did.

Caedmon & his cousin, Olivia, were ecstatic to see each other last night. He will have SO much fun. It was a little sad for Andy & me as we put him to sleep (around midnight), but we just got off the phone with Meaghan and she said he's doing great!

Andy and I got about 4 hours of sleep and then it was back to the airport for us. Everything has gone perfectly smooth for us today. Thank you, Jesus! Here's a few pics from this leg of the journey:

Saturday, July 3, 2010

The original schedule was:
10:30 leave for airport
1:05 flight departs for Salt Lake City
4:00 arrive in Salt Lake City, rent car, drive to Andy's sister's house
Evening: enjoy dinner, take showers, get to bed early for our 3:30 AM "wake up call"

Instead, our day ended up looking more like this:
10:30 leave for airport
FLIGHT CANCELED DUE TO MECHANICAL PROBLEMS
6:00 flight departs for Salt Lake City
9:00 arrive in Salt Lake City, can't find luggage, rent car, drive to Andy's sister's house
10:30 rush to take showers and get in bed before midnight for our 3:30 AM "wake up call"

When our friends, Kendall & David, picked us up for the airport this morning all of our bags were packed and by the door.

Trash taken out, perishable food taken to a friend, AC turned off. Check, check, check. After loading up, we were off to the airport in their VERY full SUV.

When we arrived at the airport, we thought we'd be able to fit all our bags on one cart. We were mistaken!

At this point, we are feeling really good about life. We have crossed our t's and dotted our i's. Nothing can stop us now! Nothing but mechanical problems! We discovered our flight to Salt Lake was canceled due to mechanical problems and we would need to take the next flight which was leaving at 6 PM (5 hours after our original flight).

All I can say is "It could have been worse." Sure, there's not a whole lot of exciting and engaging activities for a three and a half year old in the airport for 6 extra hours. But we did our best...

We ate lunch, went exploring, found some fish in an aquarium, rode the Air Train to look at planes, and finally resorted to Bob the Builder and internet games for kids. We thought about going to see a movie but decided against it when we realized that BART tickets plus movie tickets were going to be over $60!

We're thankful that it happened on this leg of the journey and hopefully we won't have anymore hiccups along the way. At least today we didn't have any other connections we were supposed to make.

Thankfully, tomorrow Caedmon will get to sleep in and he'll get to enjoy 10 days of family vacation with aunts, cousin, and grandparents! Andy & I will probably be missing him a lot more than he'll be missing us!

Last night Andy & I stayed up until 11:30 PM after everything was packed up to make cards for Caedmon to open each day. We included some stickers and a photo of us in each card. Here are a couple examples for your viewing pleasure:

Friday, July 2, 2010

By the time I am finished we will have one large duffle bag, 3 rubbermaid tupperwares full of donations, 3 carry-on suit cases, two backpacks, and a carseat. Making it all fit is like a jigsaw puzzle. A jigsaw puzzle that can weigh no more than 50 pounds.

Both Andy & Caedmon are taking a nap right now. Andy started feeling sick last night at dinner. He threw up when we got home and didn't sleep well last night. So he's feeling really weak and yucky today. PLEASE PRAY that God will mercifully heal him before we leave tomorrow.

Can't believe it's finally here!! Tomorrow we are on our way to meet our little guy!!!

Thursday, July 1, 2010

Today has been such a fun day! My sweet friend, Kim, is in town from Texas. She's the kind of friend that is nothing but HELPFUL & FUN to have around. Caedmon, Kim, and I ran a couple more errands this morning and then we started packing donations. I felt like Santa Claus preparing gifts for all of these sweet children we're about to meet! Look at our pile!!!

Formula, wipes, toothbrushes, crayons, jump ropes, shoes, granola bars, medicine, candy, fruit snacks, bottles, dolls...WOW! The amazing part is that Andy & I spent less than $100 on these donations. Other families really chipped in and supplied all of these items. God is so good!!

I was so happy to get to share this experience with Kim. It's much more fun that way. Andy will have the fun of going through it all with me when we unpack it and give it out in Ethiopia, but I would have been packing it up by myself if Kim wasn't here because Andy is really busy with work trying to get all the loose ends tied up before leaving town.

These are the gifts we're giving to the nannies, drivers, America World staff, and Guest House staff. Just a little something to say, "Thank you for all you do to care for these orphans who are so precious in the eyes of God."

This was a last minute idea. I was planning on bringing some gifts for our son and was going to include one outfit. But then I had the idea that each day when we see him, we could give him a new outfit. Our son is too young to care about what he's wearing, but I thought it would be a good "nurturing activity" to change his clothes. We're going to let Andy change our son's clothes each day so that our son can begin associating us as caregivers and people who meet his needs.

We're intentionally letting Andy do this as opposed to me because our son is rarely around men. There is a male pediatrician at the Transition Home, but all of the nannies are female and his father abandoned him & his birth mother when he was young. So our son probably has no association of men providing care for him which could potentially make bonding difficult. We want to start working on this right away by creating special, nurturing moments between him and Andy.

A couple other gifts for our son. Caedmon picked both of these out for his "baby brother". We're also going to give him a couple books and a photo album of our family.

Can you believe we got it all to fit?! Three boxes, fifty pounds or less. We are going to drill small holes around the perimeter of each box and secure them shut with zip-ties. I'll bring extra zip-ties with us so airport security can cut them off if they need to.

Andy and I will pack all of our personal stuff in one large suitcase plus our carry-ons. We will have a load! Please pray that everything makes it to Ethiopia!!